I’m the founder of MDP United, because I feel that those with Muscular Dystrophy have so much to offer others. The problem is that many of us face barriers that keep us from being independent. Things like inaccessible housing, a lack of wheelchair accessible transportation and inability to access funds to pay for equipment such as wheelchairs, Hoyer lifts, and other necessary every day devices limit our ability towards success.

I know how capable people with Muscular Dystrophy are. That’s why I’m asking the patients, their family, friends, and those who wish to help us achieve all our goals to help us make the lives of those with Muscular Dystrophy more independent and as a result, more successful. Who am I? I’m just a guy who happens to have SMA (Spinal Muscular Atrophy), a type of Muscular Dystrophy. This article well help you to get to know me better.

1. I like down home, Southern cooking and BBQ.

2. I’m chubby because of it.

3. My girlfriend is an exceptional chef, which doesn’t help.

4. I have no contact with my mother and my father is deceased.

5. The first makes me happy because she’s not good for me and the second makes me sad.

6. I’m 27 years old, but I sometimes act 17 or 7 depending on the day.

7. I love video games and cartoons way too much because of this.

8. I have a son (adopted) who is 13, but he sometimes acts like he’s 3.

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It happened on accident really. I think before this event, which has changed my life, I was always one to think more about myself and less about everyone else. However, six years ago I was on a bus to meet the man that changed my life. The idea of an Internet romance is corny, at best, but I had spoken to this man for years on the Internet and we were just a state apart. So, when he told me he was staying at school and would not be celebrating Thanksgiving I shocked even myself by concocting a plan to visit him.

I would cook him Thanksgiving dinner and we could enjoy the holiday together as friends. Funny, how things change so quickly. I cannot help but recall the romantic movies where a woman feels a spark and knows that he is the man that she wants to be with forever. It was something like that. Of course, the fact that he was in a wheelchair was very surreal to me at the time.

I quickly began asking questions. I had planned to head home that same week, but during that short time, I got my first taste of caretaking. His personal assistant was paged when he needed assistance, but he did not think they would make it in time as he was not feeling well. I jumped into the role and as he told me what to do, I patiently and helpfully followed his instructions.

It was frightening in a sense and I attempted to be overly careful because I did not want to hurt him. He was fragile to me then, though now, six years later I see him as being indestructible in many important ways.

He cried that night, embarrassed and ashamed that I needed to help him. He seemed afraid that needing that help would make me want to leave and never return. Yet there was a side of me that quickly grew to want him to ask me to do things for him. I would watch his assistants while I was with him that week.

I attempted to learn proper lifting techniques, how to bathe him and how to do other things he needed. As our relationship progressed, I would say I wanted to be the one to care for him and he would adamantly refuse. He believed it was too hard on a relationship while I believed it was even harder watching a paid employee mismanage his care.

After much debate, arguments, begging, and pleading he finally succumbed and allowed me to take over his care. The personal assistants were all let go and it was just me and him. Those were the good old days. He could stand up then. That was until the accident happened. On a rush to get him to class one morning he fell from his shower chair. I remember standing behind him, holding him up partially so that he would not fall completely. He stood trapped on his leg, which was bent, as we waited for the paramedics to come.

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ALEXANDRIA, Va., May 8 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Pending cuts to the Medicare physician fee schedule could severely hamper the ability of physical therapists to serve the rehabilitation needs of seniors and people with disabilities — driving up overall costs while decreasing quality of care, according to the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) and its Private Practice Section.

In testimony May 8 before a hearing of the U.S. House Committee on Small Business, Tom DiAngelis, PT, vice president of APTA’s Private Practice Section, commented that a scheduled 10.6 percent cut in Medicare physician payments could have an especially devastating impact on PTs in private practice, who are faced with not only the rising costs of running a small business, but also decreases in revenue due to a variety of government payment and policy challenges. The hearing on “Medicare Physician Fee Cuts: Can Small Practices Survive?” provided an opportunity for the committee to examine the potential impact of fee cuts on the practices of physicians and other allied health professionals. Unless Congress intervenes, the cuts will go into effect July 1, 2008, and could also have significant ramifications on the services offered to Medicare patients, according to APTA.

“These Medicare beneficiaries are individuals who have suffered from stroke, had joint replacements or chronic diseases that impair their ability to move, walk and perform their daily tasks,” DiAngelis testified. “Physical therapist small businesses address these beneficiaries’ health care needs throughout the United States and contribute to the health status of our country, including its economic health.”

Physical therapists, in particular, are being hit especially hard, according to DiAngelis. Not only will they experience the overall 10.6 percent reduction in payment under the fee schedule, they also will be subject to an arbitrary annual cap of $1,810 per beneficiary on outpatient services beginning July 1.

“This cap will not save the Medicare program money,” added DiAngelis. “It would only shift the cost of care away from outpatient facilities and small business to more costly and less efficient inpatient facilities. Small businesses in physical therapy will be impacted as the therapy cap policy includes an exemption for hospital outpatient departments. This exemption will do nothing more than encourage patients to seek services in the hospital setting to avoid having to change providers over the course of their physical therapy treatment when they reach the cap.” APTA is advocating for a repeal of the therapy caps or an extension of the current exceptions process that maintains access to clinically appropriate physical therapy services under Medicare.

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